On Tuesday night we had a critique of our two assigned color drawings: a ‘sub-genre of choice’ drawing and a life-sized self-portrait made with anime and/or fantasy in mind.

I had a hard time with both assignments for a couple of reasons. First, I am not overly proficient with color pastels or color media in general. To solve this problem, and upon the advice of Laura, I spent half a months rent on super deluxe pastels (Diane Townsend and UNISON) as well as nice watercolors and multiple sheets of expensive and WONDERFUL pastel card. It’s amazing just how big of a difference quality products make when dealing with color – and specifically color pastel. I still remember trying to blend oil pastels into cheap paper just a few years ago. What a pain. And what a waste. If you’re out there reading, PLEASE do yourself a favor and splurge on superior color pastels. They are handmade and will enable you to fully appreciate COLOR among many other things.

Another problem I had while working on these two color assignments was, if you can believe it, indecisiveness in choosing a ‘sub genre of choice.’ I switched my subgenre from METAL to ELIZABETHAN to PORTRAITURE all in the course of a week and a half. Sheesh. What was my problem? I am usually the most decisive person in the room. Well, when Laura’s not around…

So I was all over the place (in my head). And then I received some disappointing personal news. At that point I was not only unsure of my sub-genre of choice but I was also angry, sad, and completely blind-sided by the news. What’s a guy to do? Refusing creative block, I returned to my roots and worked on two simple portraits of my muse Andrew. The first drawing came out well but then I ruined it by spraying bleach on the surface (to provide some kind of paper treatment). I had no choice but to start over…

The second time around, I used as much pastel as I could. It felt excessive, rich, luscious, and totally artful. I rubbed each beautiful, rich stroke vigorously with my fingers and palms. The pastel card just lapped it up. It was simple and yet thrilling. I kept color theory in mind while dealing with actual color versus the pastel I was laying down. Red then green, yellow then violet, blue then orange.

The second portrait of Andrew incorporated Elizabethan and Portraiture as my sub-genres of choice. I turned Andrew from a prince with an exaggerated ruff, into a Greek god, and finally into a rather genderless jester all on one piece of borrowed pastel card (thanks to Jess Pena). Although each drawing below is finished, I consider them exercises in color and tenacity rather than artworks. Either way, I worked through my creative lapse and personal problems and am satisfied with the results.

Still angry and upset, I tackled my life sized self-portrait as fantasy with the same gusto. This time however, I used a piece of peach colored pastel card to create the face and ruff and then used various other materials and media to create the figure on the nearly 4×6 foot sheet of watercolor paper. Additionally, I placed images around and on the figure to help emphasize the fantasy aspects: being a king/queen, being pregnant, being pissed off, being caught in a self-induced nightmare, holding the hand of a mysterious character off the page (and yet engaging with only the viewer). I had a lot of fun with this. Laura and I talked a bit about art as therapy. Although I seldom consider my work to be cathartic, I admit that creating a big self portrait during a period of turmoil was incredibly and ironically relevant.